The Good Page features positive LGBTQ+ news in Central Florida and Tampa Bay, uplifting and inspiring stories highlighting locals in our community. In this issue we learn about the Bereishis Foundation, a non-profit organization that pays for children suffering from mental health issues to go to therapy.
Founder of the Bereishis Foundation, Azirel Boymelgreen, says that Bereishis, meaning beginning, represents a chance to help children restart and begin anew through therapy. This was something that Boymelgreen learned was important at a very young age.
“Pretty much through my whole life, because I am gay and Jewish, it was hard for me to fit into a lot of places,” Boymelgreen says. “I grew up in an ultra-religious Jewish community in Brooklyn … so I was very scared of my identity.”
When he was 14, Boymelgreen began to suffer from depression and anxiety, eventually leading him to attempt to take his own life. It was after this that Boymelgreen began his journey with therapy and mental health.
After he moved to Orlando with his boyfriend where he mostly worked from home and decided he needed to do something more, Boymelgreen started his plans for the Bereishis Foundation.
He said he went full force into getting the foundation up and running at just the age of 21 after his cousin died by suicide.
“That was about four months ago now, ever since then we’ve been getting a lot of donations, a lot of interest and a lot of patients signing up,” Boymelgreen explains. “We’re able to help them because we have therapists who are constantly reaching out from around the world, or signing up to reduce their prices.”
Parents who are looking to sign up to get their children connected with covered therapy can fill out a form on the Bereishis Foundation website. From there, once they are approved, the foundation will connect them with a therapist and pay for five sessions, with a check-in after the fourth to see how it is going. If all is well and the therapy is helping they renew for another five weeks.
“So far we’re up to 11 kids that we pay for their therapy per week, but I want to get to 50 by the end of the year,” Boymelgreen says.
Once the family is in a better place financially or the children have seemed to improve, the foundation helps to connect them with other resources that are affordable.
Paying for the kids’ therapy isn’t the only focus of the foundation. Having been through multiple types of therapy himself, Boymelgreen knows how important it is to connect kids with the right therapist for them. Because of this, therapists offered through the Bereishis Foundation must be approved beforehand.
“We had to make sure that the people we’re taking on are accepting of everyone,” Boymelgreen says. “We found that of the therapists signing, around 50% were not comfortable working with LGBTQ+ children.”
Boymelgreen says that their process of approval helps weed out therapists that may not be as understanding or accepting of children with specific needs, especially LGBTQ+ children.
On top of connecting children with therapists who suit their specific needs, the foundation is also working to advocate for mental health support and therapy in schools, Boymelgreen adds.
He says that the outpouring of support and excitement for the work they’re doing has been thrilling. Currently the foundation is entirely supported by donations and volunteers, while Boymelgreen works to secure more funding.
“We have tons of organizations reaching out all day trying to partner with us and work together,” Boymelgreen says. “It’s been fantastic community support. We mainly get small donations but we get a lot, so it adds up nicely.”
Since he got the foundation up and running, Boymelgreen says that he has really enjoyed the work he’s doing.
“It feels so good to have a community and to be able to provide for others and make my own space. Saving people makes me feel really good, better than any drug in the world,” Boymelgreen shares. “I was suffering a lot and it really sucked. I was really angry at society, I felt like they let me down and I couldn’t fit in. So being able to change that and make sure others don’t have to feel like that makes a difference for me.”
If you would like to apply for your child to receive paid therapy through the Bereishis Foundation fill out the form at BereishisFoundation.org/Apply-For-Support.
Interested in being featured in The Good Page? Email Editor-in-Chief Ryan Williams-Jent at Ryan@WatermarkOutNews.com in Tampa Bay or Central Florida Bureau Chief Bellanee Plaza at Bellanee@WatermarkOutNews.com in Central Florida.
